"Choosing insulation"

Choosing insulation / Green Building & Sustainable Home Renovation Information & Advice

Insulation and soundproofing

Does a home need a radiant barrier in walls and ceilings? When is it worth it?

...insulation), and some rigid insulation boards such as polyisocyanurate have them attached on one side to act as a radiant barrier, a vapor barrier, and when taped and not punctured, an air barrier as well. The intention of a foil radiant barrier is primarily to reduce cooling costs by mitigating solar heat gain through...

Insulation and soundproofing

Rigid insulation panels: which ones to use for different applications

...Insulation Products, Like Hemp Insulation panels or Batt Insulation or mineral wool - demonstrated here in roof insulation. Polyisocyanurate foam panels: PIR, polyiso, or ISO, is a thermoset plastic product typically produced as a foam and used as rigid thermal insulation panel - most often with aluminum foil facing....

Insulation and soundproofing

How insulation works

...insulation works, find the right insulation for your home build or renovation in the Ecohome Green Building Guide and these pages here: Find the best insulation for different parts of your home Is spray foam insulation safe in homes for air quality? Which foam boards are best for basement insulation? Find hemp ...

Efficient home design

Insulation in green home building, a balanced approach to putting it where it does the most good

...insulation is best? Balancing insulation is about respecting the laws of diminishing returns. Example - If I have a wall with just 2 inches of insulation and I add another 2 inches, I will certainly get my money out of it as that two inches doubles my insulation levels. If I have a wall with 30 inches of insulation and...

Efficient home design

Are better insulated homes worth the money?

...insulation a home needs, read more about high performance home building in the Ecohome Building Guide, or these pages: All about passive solar home design See Passive House and LEED ready prefab homes here Find the best insulation for your home build or renovation here Are triple pane windows worth the money? S...

Concept and design

Building science for LEED v4 wall design made easy - video

...insulation is installed outside of that. Stud cavities are still insulated with batts, but the majority of insulation is on the outside of the sheathing, this way the vapour control layer is sandwiched between layers of insulation where it can perform best in a wildly varying climate like we have in Canada. There are m...

Efficient home design

Understanding thermal performance

...insulation combinations to minimize building energy consumption, though increased insulation will probably be the best option in most cases. Calculating the energy consumption of buildings While insulation R-values are important, what really matters is energy consumption. To assess the impact of different roof insulati...

Insulation and soundproofing

Choosing the right insulation: the pros, cons and applications for walls, slabs and basements

...insulation panel that one day we hope will replace plastics based foam as a standard building insulation. And better still is when the natural alternative for these plastic based rigid foam insulation boards is a naturally derived cellulose high-performance panel with a higher R-value than current rigid insulation pane...